GRAND BLANC, MI – The running of the Crim 10-mile race is changing this year, with a new route announced Wednesday, June 12, for its first two miles.

The nation's fifth largest
10-mile road race announced the change at Grand Blanc Motor Cars, along with an enhanced partnership with HealthPlus for the next two
years and a move of the Michigan Mile race to the Friday evening before the Crim.

"We're focused on improving the experience for participants,
volunteers and for spectators so that everyone who comes to the Crim this year
will feel like a hero from start to finish," said Crim Race Director Andrew
Younger. "That idea is what the Crim is all about."

HealthPlus is now the first official title sponsor of the
event for 2013 and 2014. For the next couple of years, the Crim events will be
labeled as the HealthPlus Crim Festival of Races.

"We are very passionate about this event, it's embedded in
our culture and it means so much to us," said Kathy Bilitzke, public relations
manager of Michigan's HealthPlus. "The HealthPlus Crim Festival of Races is more
than a 10-mile or a 5K run, it's a state of mind."

The 10-mile course was revamped on the first two miles to
improve the experience for runners.

On race day Saturday, Aug. 23, runners will start at roughly
the same spot on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint but instead of following that
street north, participants will go straight on Martin Luther King,
then take a right on University Avenue, come back southeast on Harrison Street,
take a left on Kearsley Street on the University of Michigan-Flint's campus before
essentially proceeding to the same route as before.

"So basically from Mile 2.2 or so on, it will be the exact
same course as it has been," Younger said. "And we will have the exact same
finish line. We're very excited about this because it allows for the downtown
area to have traffic flowing back in and out."

The 5K route also experienced minor changes on the latter
half to increase the amount of space between the start and finish line.

The changes
were made to keep runners from blocking the highway exit to downtown Flint.

"This will allow more people to access downtown Flint during
the race and it doesn't impede the experience of the 5K as well," Younger said.

In an attempt to grow the festival's events, Crim also moved
the one-mile race to Friday, Aug. 23, for the first time to give more runners
and walkers a chance to take part in the overall experience. The Michigan Mile
is looking to draw more people with the change, and all finishers will still get
rewarded with a "Block M" medal. There will also be an invite-only Professional
Mile preceding the Michigan Mile for elite one-mile runners with a $10,000
prize purse for the winner.

"When we first started in 1977 at Mott Community College,
there was only 700 runners that year and it didn't take long to outgrow that
starting place," said race founder Bobby Crim. "By the fifth year we had to
change the course and that was just the first change, but now this year there's
a real change.

"There's been a lot of changes in the Crim, but the changes
are good," he added. "It's been more than a race since then."